Decorated athlete excels at new event

In high school, many football players play multiple sports. Sophomore Daniel Martin was one of those athletes. As an all-state football player, Martin out of Concord High School in Elkhart, Ind., also ran track. In high school, Martin was a state champion his junior year and a runner up his sophomore and senior years in the 300-meter hurdles. He was also undefeated in regular season races from his sophomore season until he graduated. Despite all these accolades, he still considered playing football for IU.\n"I thought about it but it wasn't serious," Martin said. "It would be hard with track and everything."\nThe problem with being a 300-meter hurdle state champion is that the race is not run in Division 1 track and field. That meant Martin had to adjust to running the 400-meter hurdles. Running 400-meters has not been a problem for Martin, who ran the regular 4x400-meter relay team since high school. He is now the lead leg on an IU team that ran 3:10 early this season and has the potential to finish in the top three at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and qualify for nationals. The problem arises when hurdles are put in front of you that you jump over.\nIn his first appearance in the 400-meter hurdles last year, Martin ran a time of 54.00 seconds. A good time for most in their first attempt at an event as difficult as the 400-meter hurdles. He lowered his time to 53.41 in April. His season was unfortunately held back as he suffered a hamstring injury that slowed his progress in the new event. \n"It slowed him down quite a bit," coach Marshall Goss said.\nAt the meet last weekend, Martin ran in the event for the first time this season. His time of 52.61 seconds missed the NCAA provisional mark by just 1.4 seconds. Martin has more goals than just running a provisional mark this season.\n"I want to be at least in the top three at Big Tens and I would like to go to nationals too," he said.\nHis teammates do not think finishing in the top three in the Big Ten Championships or going to nationals will be a problem. In fact they think that he could go in one of several events.\n"There are three or four events that I think he has a chance (in) but right now his strong point right now would be the 400-meter hurdles," junior Matt Harris said. "Dan has the most positive outlook of all the athletes right now as far as capabilities go"